TOWARDS INDIGENOUS POETICS. ORALITY AND STYLISTIC NUANCES
IN NGUGI WA THIONG’O’S GǏKŨYŨ FICTION
JOHNSONS MUGO MUHIA
A Thesis Submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies in Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Literature of Egerton
University
February 2014
ABSTRACT
This study is a stylistic investigation of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Gikuyu fiction. Its purpose is to interrogate
the use of orature and the aesthetic value it has given to his Gikuyu creative writings. The use of
vernacular languages in literary creation and the inherent challenges opened an avenue that had not been
explored in African literature. Earlier works that had laid the basis of African literature, and especially in
Ngugi’s case, were short stories as opposed to the novelistic discourse. These languages, which had not
been used in creating long literary discourses, need to be examined as to how they were moulded for
literary creation. The study has attempted to show that orature does not only have aesthetic appeal but it is
also a growing body of art that is able to adapt to changes in the society through space and time. The
study has evaluated how Ngugi has appropriated Gikuyu language and oral tradition to achieve aesthetic
effect. It has also analyzed Ngugi’s adaptation of motifs and images of oral tradition in a changing,
contemporary society and its use in projecting social and ideological vision. Based on eclectic but
carefully selected theoretical framework and methodological orientation, the study has taken advantage of
postcolonial, stylistics and semiotic theory (including some postulations from semiotic theoreticians like
Foucault, Bakhtin and Althusser). From semiotic theory the study has taken cognizance of the importance
of signs in all cultures, this has guided the study in interrogating the growth and adaptability of oral forms
(which are treated as individual signs) through time. The enquiry has also taken advantage of Saussure’s
concept of langue and parole, and has approached oral tradition as a system from which African creative
writers’ use in their construction of a work of art. Postcolonial theory has been crucial to the study,
especially in the light of Ngugi’s change of language, and more because language is an important
component in the questions of identity, power and representation. The study’s conclusion is that Ngugi
employs orature as a textual strategy in consciously subverting and deconstructing colonial and neocolonial practices. It has also been used as a process of reclaiming and recovering the previously occluded
indigenous histories and tradition. The recuperated oral forms have in turn been employed as models or
templates in representing contemporary postcolonial reality. In the studied works therefore, orature
emerges as a weapon of resistance against all forms of social injustices, its constituents which include oral
narratives, proverbs, songs and riddles are some of the locales from which differing ideologies are
discussed, contested and subverted.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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DECLARATION BY THE CANDIDATE ........................Error! Bookmark not defined.
COPY RIGHT ......................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
DEDICATION......................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
AKNOWLEDGEMENT......................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... 2
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.1 Background to the Study..............................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.2 Statement of the Problem .............................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.3 Objectives of the Study ................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.4 Research Premises and Assumptions: ..........................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.5 Justification of the Study .............................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study .............................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.7 Definitions of Terms ....................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.8 Literature Review.........................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.9 Theoretical Framework ................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.10 Research Methodology ..............................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER TWO: NGUGI WA THIONG’O: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS GǏKŨYŨ
WRITING .........................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.1 Introduction ..................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.2 The Nature of Gikuyu Language and the Politics of Gikuyu OrthographyError! Bookmark
not defined.
2.3 Ngugi’s Gĩkũyũ Literary Antecedent...........................Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.4 Living the Promise: Ngugi and the Growth of Gikuyu LanguageError! Bookmark not
defined.
2.5 The Future of Gĩkũyũ /Vernacular Language(s) under Ngugi’s TutelageError! Bookmark
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2.6 Conclusion ...................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER THREE: RE-CONFIGURARION OF ORAL GENRES IN NGUGI’S
CAAITANI MUTHARABA-INI ........................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.1 Introduction ..................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.2 The Ogre and the Trickster in the African Oral Tradition and their Modern Manifestation
......................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.3 I Have a Riddle: Riddling in the Era of PostcolonialismError! Bookmark not defined.
3.4 Conclusion ...................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER FOUR: VISIONS OF A BETTER WORLD: PROVERBS AND RESISTANCE
IN MATIGARI MA NJIRUUNGI .....................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
4.1 Introduction ..................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
4.2 Matigari as a Mythologised Hero ................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
4.3 Proverbs and Resistance ..............................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
4.4 Conclusion ...................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
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CHAPTER FIVE: THE MYTHIC AND FANTASTIC: REPRESENTATION IN NGUGI’S
MUROGI WA KAGOGO ...................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
5.1 Introduction ..................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
5.2 Mwathani: The Personification of Evil through Myth .Error! Bookmark not defined.
5.3 Kamiti and the Revivification of Traditional African Shamanism in the Age of
Postcolonialism ............................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
5.4 The Female as the Vehicle of Change: Nyawira and the Nine Daughters of MumbiError!
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5.5 Conclusion ...................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER SIX: SONGS AND IDEOLOGY: PERFORMING IDENTITIES IN NGUGI’S
GIKUYU DRAMA ...............................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
6.1 Introduction ..................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
6.2 Ideology Enhancing Images, Identity Markers and Invented TraditionsError! Bookmark not
defined.
6.3 Ideology and Resistance in Maitu Njugira/Mother, Sing For MeError! Bookmark not
defined.
6.4 Conclusion ...................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER SEVEN: TOWARDS INDIGENOUS POETICS: A CONCLUSIONError!
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REFERENCES .....................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
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